ive got mixed feelings about it but one thing i certainly am sure about is that i am enjoying this even though slow paced but it is very great!
perhaps it would’ve meant something else, more terrific, if and only if we didn’t go through covid-19 epidemic because whatever that is written is so relatable.
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I hadn’t read this for many years but picked it up again during the COVID pandemic.
Its story of a fictional/unnamed country (most likely the author’s native Portugal) that finds itself in the middle of an inexplicable blindness epidemic - and subsequent social breakdown - felt eerily prescient during that 2020-21 time period.
Saramago won the Nobel Prize for literature and this book is at the top of his achievements IMO. In retrospect, very similar to a John Wyndham‘s 1951 novel "Day of the Triffids."
Feb 19, 2024
The magic of Camus is his ability to blend heady philosophical ideas with compelling storytelling. This is not to say that the dullness, and banality that plagues his peers works is not present here, but rather present with intention.
His character is morally bereft, apathetic, and unreflecting until the bitter end, yet somehow sympathizable. Meursault speaks to the little voice in all of us that wonders if life really might be meaningless, just an absurd series of events, choices, and consequences that ultimately amount to nothing.
Take your time with this one, it's short but every word counts. Great for a long flight, a week of forecasted rain, or after a full day of corporate jargon and niceties.
Mar 23, 2024
“...we can not love or think except in fragments of time each of which goes along its own trajectory and immediately disappears."
second calvino of the year after invisible cities. very meta, which in less serious hands could become cloying. it manages to work out.
you (the real you, not the second perspective protagonist of most of the book) will think about the act of reading in a different way by the end of it, or at least become more conscious of it. so read if you like to read and read about reading.
Mar 3, 2025
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Sep 13, 2024
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it’s so creamy and i believe no one can hate it once they actually try it out
Jul 18, 2024